The Darker Side of Nowhere
by Footinmouthed
Summary: Katara really hopes the Blue Spirit isn't lying to her when he told her he'd help hunt Zuko down. Because if he did, her heart would break, in more ways than one. Zutara/Blutara lemons and smut.
1. Chapter 1

**First ever Zutara fic. My OTP is Zutara. Don't expect anything but Zutara here. And maybe unrequited Kataang. But Zutara.**

**Oh, and lots of lemon. Enough to make lemonade. Little children, take this as a warning. This fic is rated M.**

**Please, please review. I will respond if you review.**

**Disclaimer: I own no part of A:TLA. Obviously. Zutara would've happened otherwise.**

* * *

Katara never got jealous.

Not even when she was five and Sokka was seven and Sokka was given a weapon (it was a boomerang that would break at the slightest sneeze... but _still_...) and she was given walrus-moose thread to sew with.

Not even when people spat the word _peasant_ at her as though she was a disease in Ba Sing Se but bowed down to Toph Bei Fong's every will.

Not even when Sokka had found Suki and she had nobody.

Not even when she realised Aang was the better bender of the two. Okay, she was a bit jealous then, but she was only _human._

Not even when she heard a group of soldiers drunk at a pub, "xirxiu" juice sloshing about in their cups, rejoicing over the fact that they got to go home, while Katara had no home to go to.

Not when she mended Sokka's socks, let Aang cry on her shoulder, read letters from Toph's parents to her, counselled Suki about her stay in the Fire Nation, talked to The Duke about Jet, made dinner, cleaned dishes, cleaned Appa, and smiled when nobody else would, even if she would get nothing back.

But she watched the Fire Prince _(not ex,_ she thought to herself, _never ex)_ and the way he would interact with Toph and Aang and Sokka and they would readily accept him with open arms as though _nothing had happened_ between her group and him, while she sat, prodding at a hole in Sokka's pants with her walrus-moose thread.

And she thought she might be slightly jealous.

And so, on principle, because he'd made her give up so much of herself, she _hated_ Zuko.

* * *

They had their regular sitting-around-a-campfire-and-pretending-to-listen-to-Sokka session later that evening.

She noticed, with chagrin, that they invited _the Prince_ over.

To her satisfaction, though, he seemed quiet and withdrawn, hunched away, almost from the group.

Aang noticed this. "Sifu Hotman, if you're not going to share a story about how you ripped an article of clothing, we'll have to skip you and move on to Suki. And you'll have to wait until the next round."

Suki looked less than thrilled at the prospect, but she joined in. "Zuko, you're part of the group now. So stop sulking and join us?" she asked hopefully.

Zuko glanced at her, then glanced at the rest of the group. He didn't look at Katara. "I'm no good with anecdotes."

"Sure you are," Sokka comforted soothingly, "you have _tons_ of anecdotes you didn't tell us! Like how you got to know Sparky Sparky Boom Man, or why the Fire Nation has to burn everything they eat, or your knife-throwing ex! Or maybe... you want to forego your turn and now it's my turn so I think I'm going to tell you that joke about the bison and the firebender-"

"Sparky." (Sokka found himself encased in a box made of rock.) "It's _your_ turn. Because if you don't say something, I am, and it's going to be about the one time I found fungus in my ear."

Everyone shuddered, except Toph, who began digging in her ear for a specific something.

When Katara glanced back at Zuko, he was looking at the group with a half-smile on his face. Like he enjoyed their company. Like he _belonged._

"Actually," Katara cut across just as Zuko opened his mouth, "he doesn't have to participate. Clearly, his highness doesn't think we're good enough for him."

She glanced back at Zuko. He was staring at his feet.

The rest of them stared at her.

_"What?"_ she snapped.

And when Sokka murmured something about "she gets like this when the moon's full", she water-whipped him, and she went to her tent. She didn't come out for the rest of the night.

She heard another tent flap open after she went to her own room. She didn't hear the flap open again, and so its occupant hadn't come out.

She didn't need to be Aunt Wu to figure out who the occupant was.

* * *

Obviously, she couldn't sleep with him anywhere near Aang. She stayed up that night, like she did every other night since she'd felt the tough and uneven skin of his scar under her palm. It's that thought that kept her awake.

She hated, that for the few moments where he had looked at her and she had her hand on his scar, she felt as though he was like her, trapped in situations bigger than his comprehension. That he was like her, that he was _human_ too.

She put her hand on her left eye as she did sometimes, and she blinked slowly, and carefully, so that she could feel her eyelashes dragging along her palm, so that she could feel her eyeball swirling in the socket.

This would have been how he would feel if she had healed him.

Then, she put a hand on her chest, right between her breasts, and she felt smoothness. This was how Aang would have felt if she had acted faster and taken him away from Zuko.

She stripped down bare, and she scrutinised her naked body, searching for scars, and healing anything that could be healed. She was so encased in her cocoon of water that she almost didn't realize a figure sneaking out.

She immediately bent the water into a nearby jug, finding a simple robe to slip on, and running outside, bare feet. She could not let Zuko get away.

He wasn't anywhere to be found, but he had left enough clues to suggest where he was going. She followed the trail of broken twigs and parted bushes to a nearby town. She winced at the sight of her bleeding feet, and took water from a nearby dock to quickly heal the cuts and bruises. She continued to run.

The marble floor felt cool and smooth against her newly sensitive skin, and she listened to the pitter-patter of her feet as they scurried along. She kept one hand on the top of her robes, just above her breasts, cursing herself. If she had known that they were going to go to a town, she wouldn't have dressed so shabbily.

She was immediately surrounded by the night-owls of the city, fishermen and drunkards alike, shady figures and teenagers with a flare of rebellion, but nobody with the physique and build that Zuko had.

She had lost him.

And now, she was stuck in a godforsaken town, with nobody to help her, and nobody to guide her back home.

She walked towards the most lit part of the town, a line of shops whose lights were reflected on the cool water by the dock. She started walking along the street, and noticed how the shops were actually pubs. Filled with lecherous men.

They were quick to notice her, and the noises of the night quickly morphed from boisterous laughs and the occasional clinking of mugs to catcalls and suggestive comments.

She clutched the robe closer to herself.

"What's the matter, baby?" someone to the left of her crooned. "Lost and all alone?"

A few men beside him laughed. She ignored them and walked purposefully back towards the entrance into the forest she had come through.

She was faced with a wall of men, grinning widely, showing a few missing teeth. They looked like pirates.

"If you'll excuse me," she spoke, loudly and clearly, disguising her own disgust and fear, "I have to get back. My husband is waiting for me."

"Now, baby, you look too young to be married. How old are you? Sixteen?"

"Eighteen," she corrected in a whisper.

There was a low whistle. "So young, so dangerous to be out at this time of night. Do you know what could happen to little girls like you?"

She shook her head. She could bend and defend herself, but the moment she let go of her robes, she would be exposing herself. Shame kept her rooted.

"Please," she tried again, not minding resorting to begging, "I am getting late."

"S'matter? You've got all night, honey!"

_Bloodbending. Bloodbending might work. It's a full moon. I could knock them out. They might forget if I happen to expose myself. I'm okay. I'm okay._

She was scared.

And for the first time since he joined the group, she wished she had found Zuko.

Just as a knobby hand reached out to touch her shoulder, a figure landed in front of her.

She screamed and stepped back.

He was a masked figure wielding swords, and she caught the shimmer of blue and white against the moon's reflection.

_Is that a Water Tribe mask?_

She backed herself up against a wall, scrambling to get a clear hold of her robes. Her other hand was now free.

She bent the water with one hand, shaking with the strained effort of only using one, and she and the masked man slowly forced back the men.

She saw other men coming out of the pub, and she knew they would jump at the chance to brawl.

Apparently, so did her partner, because he held a finger up to his lips, and started running. She looked at the pool of water floating just above her hands, and quickly bent it into her hair. It would be a good holding place for now, having left her waterskin at the tent.

She ran with him, and the pitter-patter of her feet sounded loud and thundering in comparison to the silent footsteps of the man in front of her.

He led her to an alley, and he abruptly stopped.

She assumed the worst of his taking her to a deserted place.

She quickly bent the water from her hair and knocked him against the nearest wall. She used both hands to harden the water into ice, freezing him in place.

He didn't talk, but he did struggle.

"Who are you?" she shouted, taking out her anger and frustration on the man.

He didn't respond. But he did move his head fractionally down, as though trying to point at something.

She looked down her body, to see her robes coming apart.

_Oh gods..._

Even if she hadn't exposed anything vital, she had shown him more cleavage than she cared to show this strange man. One shift of her body and her robe would dislodge and more would be exposed.

She covered herself up quickly, turning herself away from the man and blushing. She tied the sash around herself more firmly.

She turned back to him, burying her embarrassment deeply. She didn't know where his eyes were, because the holes in the mask were shadowed by the dark. She crossed her arms over her chest.

After a few hesitant moments, she stepped closer to him.

She looked at the design properly. _Blue and white mask? Why does that sound familiar?_

She looked at the twin Dao swords laying a few feet away from him. And it clicked.

"You're the Blue Spirit, aren't you? My friend, Aa - Aaroo... had told me about you!"

She thought he could hear a snort.

She quickly unfroze him and bent the water back into her hair, undoing her braid to help the water stay easier.

The Blue Spirit was staring at her.

She looked at him, and he mimed a firebending stance.

She put her hand near her hair.

Then, he mimed squared shoulders, sharp movements, before returning to a stiff stance. Earthbending.

She blinked.

He mimed graceful and lightweight movements.

And finally, with uncanny resemblance to her own movements, as though he had observed a waterbender, he mimed waterbending stances. It was graceful and smooth, and she watch quite unabashedly as his muscles moved under his shirt.

She sighed. "You know, don't you?"

He nodded.

"I'm Katara. I'm the Avatar's waterbending teacher."

Again, he nodded.

"I'm lost."

He cocked his head sideways, as if mocking her.

"I was searching for Zuko."

He nodded.

"He's the group's firebending master."

He nodded again.

"I think he's up to something."

She didn't know what it was about this man. Maybe it was the way that Aang wholeheartedly trusted the Blue Spirit, or maybe it was the way he saved her from the... from the pirates...

She cleared her throat.

She trusted this man, more than she trusted Zuko. And she knew that if anyone could help her find what he was up to, it would be him.

"I need your help."

He didn't move.

"I need you to help me find Zuko."

He didn't move.

"Do you want payment?"

He didn't move.

Then, he nodded.

He started walking towards her, and she scrambled backwards, reaching into her hair. "If you think I'm going to give you sexual flavours-"

His head tilted upwards, as though frustrated.

He stepped closer to her once again, then pointed at the two of them. Then he pointed into the woods.

She understood what he means.

"You want me to show you where the Avatar is?"

He nodded.

She swallowed. She knew she could trust him. She knew he was on her side.

But she also knew how foolish she was when it came to trust.

"Find Zuko first, then we'll talk."

He gave her an imperceptible nod.

She looked at the slowly rising sun. "Tomorrow. Midnight. Don't be late."

He nodded, and he put his hands in his pockets. She thought he might be smiling.

She turned around, intent on walking back in the woods, when she realised she hadn't asked for a name. She turned back and opened his mouth, only to find him gone.

* * *

Hours later, when she finally found her way back to the tents, she peeked inside a certain someone's tent.

He was sleeping, albeit rigidly, face turned away from her.

She cursed.

The next time, she promised, she would find out what he was doing.

But for that night, she fell asleep again to the dreams of the Blue Spirit's muscles flexing, and his eyes burning into her soul.

* * *

**So, that's it. Chapter 1. I expect this to be a 7 part fic.**

**I think the next chapter's really gonna start heating up. Ahem. Blutara.**

**I love you all, and please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey readers!**

**To my one reviewer: thank you, how sweet of you! This chapter is entirely and solely dedicated to you. Enjoy smexytimes.**

**If you find that Katara is acting a bit OC, it's because she's 18 in this fic. And having traveled with the Avatar and no real parental figure, she's not as innocent as she was when she was fourteen (ahem, like she was in the series).**

**Smexytimes galore for you. No nakedness but it's progressing.**

**Reviews would be lovely, thank you!**

**Oh, and I don't own any part of A:TLA or its franchise. Shame.**

* * *

Katara had learned how to segregate poison from blood in those lessons in the tiny hut back with Yugoda. She had never had to use it. She thought she might have to now.

Someone had left tea for her when she woke up (she woke up late that day after chasing Zuko around the night before). It was a singular, chipped, black teapot with a mismatched yellow, hollowed-out eggshell looking cup. An array of colourful teacups were off to the side, emptied and hanging upside down for drying.

The others had drunk their tea.

And she couldn't find anyone.

_Were they poisoned?_

She sat down, cross legged, by the cup and poured herself some. It was newly hot.

She put the cup to her lips. She dipped her tongue in the tea to test the temperature. She parted her lips fractionally. And she drank.

She immediately spit it out.

_By gods... what the _hell_ is this? Contraceptive?_

A figure sat by her. "My uncle said my tea's bracing."

"He's a very good liar, then."

Zuko licked his lips. "I'm sorry."

Katara bent her tea into fine ribbons in the air. They twirled around each other, freezing and unfreezing.

"Did you sleep well?"

Zuko's good eye widened. "Y-yes. I did. I slept well. Thank you for asking."

She turned to him sharply, the ribbons looking like vertical rivers in the air. "What? Did I say something wrong?" _Something you want to tell me?_

His cheek pinked. "No. It's just the first time you've talked to me without..."

"Threatening to make you jump in a river myself?"

A corner of his lip twisted upwards. "Yes."

She snorted.

He refused to contribute to conversation anymore, just created fire between his fingertips. It was starting to look annoyingly like her ribbons of tea. She doused the fire with the tea.

He smiled. "At least there's a good use for that tea."

She got up and walked towards the sound of sporadic explosions, where Aang and Toph were training.

Aang turned to her immediately. "Heey, Sifu Katara!" He turned to face her, a boulder balancing precariously in mid-air in front of him. His shoulders then pushed together, his arms tensed, as though pushing at a black box. With an impressive grunt, the boulder tore in two.

Katara saw Toph roll her eyes.

"Good job, Aang!" She walked over and patted his cheek. He beamed under her praise.

"Actually, Twinkletoes, that kind of sucked." She parted her legs and squatted, then straightened. Before anyone could understand what was going on, a boulder rammed into Aang, throwing him backwards.

He airbended to soften the fall, laughing. "That's because you're really _good_ at earthbending, Toph!"

"Suck up," she muttered under her breath. Katara frowned reproachfully at her.

"What are you staring at, Sweetness? Don't you have work to do?"

Her teeth pushed together, making her jawbones protrude outwards. "Sokka can wash his own dishes for one day."

Aang looked at her. "Toph's right, Katara, I think that it might help if you train with Zuko."

"Are you _kidding_ me? The last time we fought, he nearly killed me. And he actually killed you, Aang."

The two pairs of eyes she was previously addressing moved to a spot behind her. Her line of vision followed theirs, and she was met with golden pupils.

Zuko swallowed. "I understand that you don't want to train with me-"

"That's right. I don't."

"-but Aang's right in that maybe it'll help us both get better-"

"I'm good as I am, thanks."

"-and I promise I won't hurt you, or attack you, or betray your trust-"

"Like I'd trust you."

"Listen, Sweetness." A new voice interjected into their rapid-fire conversation. "You better suck it the fuck up and move on, because it's tiring, watching you be bitchy towards Sparky. This isn't some petty fight, this is a _war_ we are preparing for. I don't care if you don't like him, or you don't want to see his face again, but you need to move on. Because, in case you haven't noticed, you're not the only one Sparky's been searching for forgiveness from. But you're the only one who hasn't given it to him." Toph stamped her newly-healed feet in the process.

Her eyes turned towards Aang's, whose eyes were usually warm and pliant, but was met with the steely stare of an Avatar.

She turned towards Zuko.

"One funny move and I'm waterbending you out of this camp before you can shout _honor."_

"I wouldn't expect any less."

* * *

Katara was eighteen. And although she was technically a virgin, she wasn't innocent. She had fooled around with more men than she cared to admit: Haru, Jet, that drunk man at the pub...

And being sexually aware meant that she knew how men would react to certain circumstances.

Especially hot-headed nineteen-year-old males.

And she wasn't above using that knowledge.

She had walked off to her room earlier, telling Zuko to meet her at sunset, where he would start with the advantage as the sun started going down, but she would end with the advantage as the moon rose.

She didn't prepare herself, bending-wise, for this fight. She planned on fighting _dirty._

When she finally walked out into the sky shining with a myriad of orange hues, she found nobody but Zuko there.

"Where are everyone else?"

His arm reached across his chest to his opposite shoulder, and his other arm pulled at the crossed elbow. "They went into town."

She supposed she was glad Aang wouldn't be able to see her in this state, and she was sure as hell glad Sokka wouldn't be able to.

"Are you ready?"

"Not yet," she responded. Keeping her eyes fixed on his, she reached up into her hair and untied it. It fell in messy waves across her shoulders and chest. His good eye widened fractionally, then narrowed.

Then, she reached for the ties of the same robe she wore yesterday, and tugged at the knot. They pooled loosely to her feet.

Zuko kept his eyes on hers, even as he swallowed and his hands started to shake slightly.

Katara wore her bending clothes. Except, she had tightened it a bit, so it hugged her body tighter. She had unwrapped some of her upper bindings and cut off the loose strips, so that he could see the hardness of her nipples peeking through.

She smirked. This was _fun._

His eyes were darkening. He suddenly crossed his arms at the hips, and tugged his shirt upwards and off. He got into a bending stance.

So did she.

She attacked first, twisting and curving in the efficient manner that had the water rising upwards and arcing around him in too many streams for him to keep count.

He was prepared, though. With the sun by his side, his moves were thrusts of powerful fire that she couldn't hope to douse, just duck. He billowed arcs of fire from his mouth and his hands, and she found it too much to fight.

She quickly raised a shield of water around her, and the resultant effect was a veil of stream she couldn't see him through.

There was suddenly a figure coming at her, an extended foot first as a means to kick her. She ducked out of the way and water-whipped that foot, forcing him on his hands.

He arced through the air in a way that reminded her forcefully of Ty Lee. No doubt that's where he had picked it up. He was in front of her again, powerful bursts of lightning searing the grassy ground and leaving a trail of burning ashes behind.

She was losing.

He ran at her, and she could see the way his sweat was trickling down his chest, the way his muscles contracted, the way he was power, so much _power_, that she had no choice but to flee instead of fight.

Then, she felt it.

She could feel the interchange of the sun and the moon, and with the way Zuko almost faltered in his steps, so could he.

She stepped out of the way, and he turned back once he raced past her a bit, flames creeping up his wrists. He got into an attacking stance.

She breathed deeply.

Then, she bent.

She sucked the water from the trees, and from the grass, and it was all around him, batting down the fire even before it became a threat, and she momentarily considered reaching into his blood and stopping him from moving, but that was too cruel, even to do to Zuko.

So she flung water in his direction, before freezing it to ice shards seconds before it hit him, and he grunted where it got caught in his flesh. She could _sense_ the blood dripping down from his shoulder and forearm.

She advanced on him, and his protective barriers of fire were destroyed, and she flung her body towards his. It was his momentary surprise that let her land on top of him and freeze his wrists to the ground. Any attempts at melting the makeshift manacles were fruitless, as it took no effort to refreeze his wrists. He was helpless.

And she felt _wonderful._

She looked down at the gaping man below her, and then at where her hands had landed on his body; one on his shoulder, and one on his chest, above his heart, which was hammering like a komodo-rhino.

And then her awareness shifted elsewhere, to where she was sat, and to the prominent bulge she was pressing against. She practically purred in satisfaction.

This would be her revenge.

Slowly, so that she kept eye contact with him, she shifted her hips on his.

He groaned and inhaled through clenched teeth, resulting in a choked sort of moan.

"What's the matter, _Prince Zuko?_ This is the first time you're in a woman's control, isn't it?"

He didn't answer, just looks up at her with smouldering eyes.

Her own eyes narrowed. "Defenceless. _Weak. _I'm not helpless anymore, Zuko, you are. I can do what I _want_ to you," she whispered, flicking her hips again for emphasis.

His hips bucked helplessly against hers.

"Don't forget it, Zuko. One false move, and I can destroy you."

And just as she was reaching around her for water, to knock him unconscious, a shriek came from somewhere behind her.

She practically flung her body off his in shock and liquefied the shackles. "Sokka."

Everyone was watching. Sokka's eyes had gone wide in horror, and she could descry a few words between his bumbling: "on his lap... _baby sister..._ dropped my pie!..."

Next to him, Suki patted his arm comfortingly. She looked more amused than she should have.

Toph was openly smirking. "You know, when I suggested sparring, this wasn't what I had in mind."

And Aang, Katara noticed, had his brows furrowed, looking between his two bending teachers.

Katara jumped up and waved her arms in front of her as a means of assurance. "It wasn't what it looked like. I was just..." she glanced at Zuko, who was bent over at the waist, knees bent, head buried in his arms. "I was just teaching Zuko a lesson."

Sokka made a sound that sounded like a dying fish. "What _kind_ of lesson?"

She flipped her hair over her shoulder with more bravado than she felt. "That he shouldn't mess with us."

Toph burst into peals of laughter. "Oh _man..._ Sweetness... you're in for it _bad."_

_"What?"_ Katara and Sokka's voices blended together in a shriek.

Toph smirked again. "Nothing. Sparky, yip yip. I'm tired. Carry me home."

Zuko made a strangled sound. "Not yet, champ, just give me a minute."

"Oh, for _fuck's_ sake..." Toph soaked him with mud extracted from the ground. "Better?"

He stood up, avoiding everyone's eyes but Toph's. "Must you always swear like a pirate? ...Yes. Better."

Toph climbed onto Zuko's back, seemingly uncaring of the mud that was soaking her tunic. "Yip yip!"

"I _got_ it, champ..."

And he clambered away with her hanging off his back.

Sokka turned towards Katara. He looked at her with an accusatory glare, which morphed into a resigned one. "I think it's time I told you something, Katara..." He looked at Suki in a meaningful glance, as though Suki knew what he was going to say. She looked confused.

Katara put her hand on her hip, jutting her hip out, before noticing her state of undress and somewhat hunching into herself. "Well?"

"Listen, when a man loves a woman, it isn't the seal spirit who brings a baby home, it's something called _se-"_

Katara whipped him across the head. "Sokka!"

Suki looked at her apologetically, before taking her boyfriend's arm and dragging him away with a strength nobody would have expected of such a lithe woman.

Katara turned to Aang. He was watching her impassively.

"Did something happen between you two?"

"No."

He looked at her for another moment, before smiling. "I trust you."

She exhaled a shaky breath. "Good."

They walked back to camp together.

"What happened to your clothes?"

"Oh. Um. Tore."

"Pity."

She squirmed away from his searching and suspicious gaze.

Back in the camp, Zuko was nowhere to be seen.

But she could still hear Toph laughing from a mile away.

* * *

There was an undercurrent feeling that night, when she crept out of the tent two minutes after Zuko did.

She couldn't place her finger on it, but it lit her up and made her feel alive in the night.

It wasn't excitement. It wasn't thrill from danger. It was something else.

She waited by the spot she had frozen the Blue Spirit earlier, reaching awareness into her own blood and watching it flow. She was restless.

She didn't hear him coming. When she looked up, she was staring into the sinister face of the Blue Spirit.

She would have shrieked, if not for the hand that came up and clamped around her mouth.

She lightly water-whipped his thigh as a means of reprimand. He immediately removed his hand.

"You're late."

He shook his head. He pointed at the moon, which was in the exact same place yesterday.

"You're very punctual, then. You couldn't be earlier?"

He shook his head again. Then, he offered her his hand.

She put her hand in his, and the undercurrent of feeling returned, thundering in her veins.

He pulled her up onto a roof, and he pointed at a dark and diminished alley.

"You think _that's_ where Zuko is?"

He nodded.

"Well. He does go to the oddest places."

She took the lead and leapt across roofs to come to the alley. The Blue Spirit jumped down first, and when she closed her eyes tightly and jumped down to follow, she landed in his arms.

She blushed, but he seemed nonchalant in the way that he let go of her immediately and turned towards the alley to start walking.

She hastened behind him. She peered into the tiny windows of dusty shops, finding crooked-nosed owners and cloaked figures in deep conversation.

"Do you think one of them is Zuko?"

He didn't answer, just continued walking.

"Do you think he's doing something illegal?"

No answer.

"Do you think he knows we're following him?"

No answer.

"Have you ever met him before? Does he like you?"

He shoved her into a perpendicular, narrower alley, again clamping a hand over her mouth.

She twisted and struggled against him, and he pushed harder against her.

Then, she heard it. The sound of boisterous, drunk voices. And when she peeked out of the alley, she caught sight of the green uniform.

_Guards._

And they were after the Blue Spirit.

She held very still, occasionally shifting to get more comfortable. Against her, she could feel the Blue Spirit's laboured breathing. Quite honestly, in between his silent footsteps and lack of words, she was starting to wonder if he really _was_ a spirit. His breathing and his frantic heartbeat told her otherwise.

He was nervous.

They waited together until the guards walked away. Then, she waited for his rampant heartbeat to slow down, and his figure to leave hers.

It didn't happen.

"Blue Spirit..." She looked up and found herself nose-to-nose with the man. She inhaled sharply. "Blue Spirit."

His arms came from where they were resting on his side to either side of her head, on the wall.

She lifted her head fractionally and parted her lips.

Then, he pressed against her, and she gasped.

She suddenly understood the undercurrent of feeling. It was _arousal._

She wasn't settled from earlier when she sparred with Zuko. And now, she had this hot, solid male pressed against her, breathing in her ear. And she loved it.

Her arms circled his neck.

"So," she nearly purred, "is this what you call looking for Zuko?"

He didn't move, as though asking for permission, so she hitched her leg up onto his waist.

His hands crept down from the wall to her shoulders, down her arms, and onto her hips in response.

With a grunt, he was undone.

"I suppose," she murmured, her eyes trying to peer into his, only to be obstructed by that stupid mask, "that it wouldn't help."

And she swivelled her hips, pressing his bulge against her tightly, moaning softly as a result.

He held very still for a second, before covering her eyes with one hand. She heard the mask drop to the ground with the other.

Then, she felt his lips on her neck. They traveled from the hollow under her ear down to the middle of her neck, without using any tongue or teeth. They traveled down to the pulse point, where he kissed the spot tenderly over and over again. Then, his tongue. It circled around the pulse point, and she bucked against him. Her hands dug into his shoulders. His adventurous tongue traced patterns across her neck, stopping only where her loose robes started. His tongue was on her collarbone, licking hotly. He moved back up to the pulse point.

His teeth soon followed her tongue, surrounding the pulse point but not pressing down.

"Oh... oh god..."

Her hands roamed down from his shoulders onto his back, feeling the rippling muscles under them.

He groaned against her neck, then bit. Hard.

She cried out, hands flying onto his hips and pulling him closer, while flinging her head back against the wall.

He sucked on the skin, and it was so painful and pleasurable, and the throb between her legs was getting insistent and unbearable...

Then, he stopped.

His hand covered her eyes, and when he finally removed it, he had the mask back on.

She stayed leaning against the wall, panting. He stepped away from her, running his hand through his shaggy hair.

"What's wrong?"

He shook his head, then he pointed ahead of them, out into the light of the rising sun.

She followed him outside. "What is it?"

He shook his head again.

"Did you not... like it?"

He whirled around to face her, waving his arms and shaking his head wildly as a sign of no.

"Then what is it?"

He pointed at the both of them, then into the woods.

"You want to focus on the task at hand?"

He nodded.

She swallowed disappointment. "I understand. I mean, in the end, we didn't even search for Zuko."

He crossed his arms and shrugged. She thought he might be self-conscious.

She offered him a half-smile. "We'll try again tomorrow?"

He nodded.

"Okay. Good. That's good."

Then, before she properly registered it, his arms were around her and hugging her tightly, as though apologising. Then, he was gone.

* * *

"You got bitten by a bee too? So did I, look!"

Aang displayed his bee sting on his forearm to Katara, who nodded distractedly. Her fingers touched the love bite the Blue Spirit had left behind, and couldn't bite back the smile.

She noticed Zuko watching her, and to her befuddlement and annoyance, he was trying to hide a smile too (which he quickly rearranged into a frown once he caught her looking at him).

_Zuko_, she decided, _is an inherently suspicious character._

* * *

**So, that's it. Maybe this time, we can beat one review? That would be great, haha. I live for these reviews.**

**And things got steamy, didn't they? Aah... sexy Blutara and Zutara... so good.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Woohoo! We doubled the reviews! Now maybe we can get a bit more? Haha.**

**To my one lovely reviewer who was so sweet as to review twice:**

**missmusician14: Thank you :) I will be building more Aang/Katara interactions in the future, but I want this chapter to be about Zutara and Blutara. And you couldn't be more right in that Blutara might hinder the Zutarian relationship. Maybe I've started to ramify that in this chapter? Let me know what you think!**

**As always, reviews are welcomed with open arms. Maybe a cuddle or two.**

**And the usual disclaimer, of course: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender.**

* * *

She showered only in the dead of night, when everyone else was asleep. Since she'd met the Blue Spirit, though, she'd had to shower in the afternoons, which she hated, because she was sure someone would walk in on her.

She decided, that night, that she would forego sleep to bathe and then meet the Blue Spirit. She put on the same robe she wore the first day and the day before to the little stream some distance from the camp, and stripped herself bare. She bathed in the moonlight, relishing the feeling of the cold breeze all around her naked body.

Then, she undid her braid. Her hair was so long, now, going up to the beginning of her butt. It flowed freely in the breeze.

She got into the water, and it was so, so _cold,_ before she adjusted to it, dunking her head in the water. Her hair stuck to her face, neck, arms and back now, and she began cleansing herself.

The sensual push and pull of the water both sated and awakened her. Here, surrounded by her element, under the half-moon, she felt as though she could sense everything moving in the water. The awareness shifted from the water to herself, to the planes of her shoulders to the ridges of her elbow, across to the firmness of her stomach, the valley between her breasts, the apex of her thighs, then... _oh._

It's been too long since she'd last done this, and that time, it was fast, and rushed, and it was unsatisfactory. She was going to take her time with this one.

She retracted her fingers back to her stomach, and using the back of her nails, she stroked herself there. She called up a myriad of images of the men she'd met, and she found herself stumbling through images of Haru and Jet, searching for someone else. Her mind landed on the Blue Spirit, and she felt a surge of fire ignite in her skin. With a gasp, her hands ended up on her breasts, and she palmed her nipples quickly and eagerly.

She stilled herself then, telling herself to take it _slowly..._ She started again on her breasts, scraping her nails lightly agains the areolas, and choking out a moan. She imagined the Blue Spirit's hands, sans gloves, tugging on her nipples the way she was, breathing harshly, pressed on top of her, and she imagined his voice.

Immediately, one hand shot down to between her legs. For some reason, she imagined a sort of rasping, low, voice. It would be what suited him best.

Her thumb found her clit, and she rubbed in fast circles, all pretences of going slow with the orgasm gone. When she felt lubricated and needy enough, she quickly sank one, two, _three_ fingers into herself. Again, the Blue Spirit came to mind, and she found herself racing towards her peak. But there was something missing... she needed an extra _push..._

She imagined the Blue Spirit taking his mask off. Underneath the mask, she saw a scar covering half his face.

She quickly withdrew her fingers, alarmed. Was she really going to fantasise about _Zuko?_

She still hated his guts, but even she couldn't deny how _sexy_ he looked... and that _scar..._ she imagined it rubbing between her breasts, and with a gasp, her hand was back between her legs, rubbing furiously and pushing three fingers inside her.

She disregarded the fact that she hated him, and she imagined him between her legs, with his fingers inside her, with his tongue licking her clit, with his golden eyes burning through her... _oh..._ and in between the suction of his lips, the brutal, merciless assault of his fingers, his rasping her name... _Katara..._

She came, hard, the river around her stilling before bursting and spilling everywhere.

Panting, exhausted, she clumsily climbed out of the river bank, bent herself dry, and wrapped her robe around her. Again, she didn't bother with undergarments.

Like this, she stumbled into town.

* * *

The Blue Spirit pointed at the moon when she arrived.

She sighed irritably. "Yes, I know I'm late."

He crossed his arms, and she blushed. "I was... busy."

He didn't push her on the answer. He just offered her his hand, and the leapt from roof to roof for a while.

He signaled her to stay put, and he raised a finger to his lips. Then, he dissolved into the night.

She panicked. _Is he leaving me here?_

She stayed despite her instincts telling her to go in the direction the Blue Spirit went.

She saw the moon's position shifting across the sky, and she fiddled with the hem of her robe in nervous boredom.

Then, she saw it.

She would recognise the scar from anywhere. He had his hood pulled over his head, but she could still make out his scar.

She half wanted to stumble towards him.

She watched him walk into the medicine shop, and followed him, hiding behind a ledge, and peering into the shop.

She watched him talk to the man behind the counter, and watched the man bark back irritably at him. From her distance, she could only discern a few words:  
_"not my concern... don't have the money, do you?... charity case?"_

She watched Zuko throw his hands up in the air, and point to something in a shelf behind the man.

She watch the burly man turn his back towards Zuko and fetch something, and then she saw it.

She saw his hand slip onto the counter in front of him, and gather a few, inconspicuous things into his palm. It slipped into his pocket.

Through her indignant fright, she registered two thoughts: _I knew he was up to no good,_ and _where the hell_ _is the Blue Spirit?_

She turned around to look for him, spying nothing but shadows.

When she turned back, Zuko had already walked past her without noticing her, and she scurried behind him. _Where's he going now?_

They wound through little passages, to a dirtier, rougher part of town, where houses were shabbily built with leaning roofs and unsteady pillars, and little children sleeping outside in the dirt with their parents. Her heart constricted at the sight.

She watched Zuko lean down, put the medicine beside a little boy, and tap the mother on the shoulder. Then, he disappeared.

She stood still, concealed behind another house, watching the mother wake up groggily. The child, noticing the lack of his mother's embrace, woke up as well. They spied the medicine next to him. The both broke out into relieved, watery prayers to various deities, and the child broke off with a fit of coughs.

_This_ is where Zuko had been going to? To steal from the rich and give to the poor?

She vaguely remembered the Painted Lady, and how she destroyed a whole factory to help the town. Zuko was doing the same thing.

Something lodged in her throat as she watched the mother take the child into her arms and feed him medicine. Before she knew it, she had stepped out, and found herself leaning in front of the pair.

They both gasped, and the mother held the child tighter to her.

"It's okay," Katara whispered through tears. She called the water from her water pouch on her bare hip, and the mother and child stayed still, fascinated.

She put her hands on the child's forehead, and the child visibly relaxed in his mother's arms. She moved her arms across his vulnerable, little body, and spotted the problem somewhere around his stomach. The sliver of moon gave her enough strength to recognise the state of the blood, and it was poisoned. The boy was slowly dying of blood poisoning.

She knew what she had to do. She knew that if she bloodbent, she would pass out and she wouldn't know what would happen after that. She knew that if she didn't, the child would die in a few days.

She segregated the poison.

She listened to the call of blood, and she listened to the call of poison, and she moved her fingers so that the poison was quickly rising away from the child's bloodstream, up his throat, out his mouth, and she squinted, her vision going blurry, and she bent, and bent, and the poison was out of him now, and she felt him breathing easier, and everything went dark.

* * *

When she woke up, she was being carried by the Blue Spirit.

"Uhhh..." she moaned, feeling an unbearable headache.

The Blue Spirit didn't even glance down at her.

She rested her head on his shoulder, and felt said shoulder stiffen a bit. She didn't care. The headache was killing her.

"Wuzzgoinon?"

The Blue Spirit sighed. She could feel his chest rising and falling more than hear the exhalation through his lips. He put her down and leaned her against a brick building, lifted her chin and tipped something into her mouth. She swallowed, and she felt a fair bit of the headache disappear.

She felt a tingling feeling spread from the tips of her fingers to the tips of her toes, and she tried wriggling all twenty digits to shake the feeling off.

But it was in her arms and legs now, so she flopped those about as well.

The Blue Spirit sat back and watched her, his knees bent and his arms clasped together loosely with his forearms balancing on his knees.

Katara was feeling great. A bit funny, but great. She giggled.

"Is it because I bloodbent?"

She glanced at the moon. It was disappearing. The sun would come up soon.

She frowned. Was she supposed to get back?

And why was she feeling so _hot?_

"Blue," she moaned, then stopped. She laughed. "Blue. Can I call you that?"

The man in front of her said nothing.

"Blue, I'm so hot..." She began tugging off her robes, before hurried hands pulled it back on.

She pouted up at him. "You don't want to see me naked?"

The Blue Spirit kind of fell back on his butt. She giggled, and started crawling towards his parted legs.

He kept pushing himself back as she advanced on him, then he hit the back of an adjacent wall.

She pushed herself flush against him. "I _know_ you want to see me naked. I still have your hickey, see?"

She pulled her robe back to expose some slim shoulder and her neck, which was, in fact, bruised by a sizeable hickey.

"Maybe I should give you one, too!"

She lunged for his robes, and began tugging it down, exposing cool, ivory skin to her. She tried leaning down and biting his neck while he was trying to squirm away from her, but the stupid mask kept on obstructing her.

Irritably, she tried to pull it off.

His hands caught hers, and squeezed it tightly. It reminded her of the time Zuko saved her from the pirates.

The thought made her frown for some reason.

"Why won't you tell me who you are?"

No answer.

"Why won't you talk to me?" The mild sedative he gave her controlled her speech, and she found herself asking private, intimate questions.

She tried to push herself away from him, but the headache resumed, so she settled for leaning her head on his chest.

"You know," she mused, half-irritated, half-intrigued, "even Zuko's easier to deal with than you. He answers my questions."

The figure sat rigid behind her.

"I know where his scar came from," she suddenly whispered, haunted, with wide eyes. "I can't tell you because I can't but even I feel bad for him. Me! The girl who hates him! Well..." she frowned thoughtfully, all bad tastes of Zuko's scar story melting away, "even I can't deny he's hot."

The thought made her laugh loudly.

"You think he has a big _unagi?"_

Suddenly, she was being scooped up, and they were headed for the tree line separating the town and the forest.

She looped her arms loosely around his neck and continued rattling. "I watch him bend, you know. He has nice muscles."

She lazily groped the Blue Spirit's chest, and it tightened under her searching ministrations.

"Like yours," she giggled.

She sobered again. "I saw him giving a child something to drink. Then I went to the child, and he had poison in him. Was he poisoning the child?" For some reason, that thought sounded so odd. Freaky stalker who tried to steal her best friend or not, he wouldn't hurt a child.

She looked up at the Blue Spirit, and she found herself wishing to see his face. She felt vulnerable, scared. "Sometimes, I dream of the catacombs. I wish Zuko didn't betray me."

She watched the Blue Spirit's Adam's apple bob up and then down. She watched the way the chords in his neck strained as he set her down gently by a tree. She watched as he retreated into town, too bone-tired to follow him.

Slowly, her senses came back, and she tried getting up on her feet, before her legs wobbled and gave out underneath her.

"Katara?"

_Zuko._ She squinted up at the figure, whose face was illuminated by the moon.

"Katara, are you okay?"

His voice was raspy and low.

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. How did he know she was there? Was he _stalking _her? Did he know about the Blue Spirit?

He was crouching in front of her, worriedly peering into her eyes. "Are you drugged?"

She tested her limbs, and to her pleased astonishment, she realised the tingling had gone.

"Not anymore." She looked up at him, and he looked taken aback.

"Can you stand up?" He stood up and offered her his hand, and she ignored it and hoisted herself up.

As she started collapsing, she felt an arm hook around her legs, and she was suddenly being carried the way the Blue Spirit carried her. She opened her mouth to protest before he cut her off.

"Where were you, Katara?"

"None of your business," she snapped. Then, seeing him wince, she changed her tone fractionally. "I just got lost while coming back from bathing."

He said nothing, so she pinched his side. She quite liked having a companion who would talk.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Nothing." She looked up at him challengingly. He faltered in his steps.

"Are you sure you're not drunk?"

"No."

She tried to wheedle information out of him. "How did you know where I was? Were you in town too? What were you doing in town?"

Realising she was giving too much away, she shut up.

"I wasn't in town. I woke up, and I found your tent flap open. I though you were... kidnapped. So I searched everywhere in the forest for you."

_Liar._ "Hmm."

He glanced down at her. "For future records, you need to walk perpendicular to the river to get back to the camp, not alongside it."

She scowled. "Thanks."

He kept quiet again. Finally, they entered a little clearing, and the sun starte creeping up on them quickly. He hastily set her down outside her tent, and gave her a half-smile, tentative and nervous. He turned around to leave her.

"Zuko..." she called out, something taking hold of her. He turned back, a puzzled yet polite expression on his face.

As she felt her eyes droop as she crawled back into the tent, she glanced back at him. "Thank you."

_Hmm. Maybe I am still drugged up._

* * *

**So. You know who the Blue Spirit is. I know who the Blue Spirit is. Katara... not so much. She's always been quite obtuse when it comes to men. Little boy who can bend four elements is hopelessly in love with me? What? Man who can't bend but is leading a group called Freedom Fighters and is seducing me wants to destroy an entire village? She saves realizes three seconds before it happens.  
**

**It's the same with Zuko/Blue Spirit. She won't know until he takes off his mask and spells it out for her.**

**We still love her anyway, right?**

**Please review! I love reviews so much. It means everything to an author.**


	4. Chapter 4

**"What do you mean you're inserting another chapter in between the ones you've already written, Footinmouthed?"**

**Yes, well. I'm badass like that. I guess you can call me a rulebender. Get it? Like... waterbender... but... um... sorry. I'll just go away now.**

**But in all seriousness, it's because I'm a sucker for reviews, and as per missmusician14's request, I am trying to make the transition from Katara's hating Zuko to her finding him a hot smexy thing more seamless. Thank you, sweetheart, for that suggestion xx**

**Consequently, I have edited the next (previous?) chapter so it makes sense.**

**As ever, I'll be answering all your reviews at the bottom. See you there!**

**Oh, and: I own no part of A:TLA.**

**Review, please!**

* * *

They sent her shopping with him.

Aang claimed he was too busy training, Suki had a "stomach ache", Haru and Teo and The Duke were off somewhere making bombs (nobody dared interrupt them), Toph just flat out refused, and nobody in their right mind would delegate Sokka to spend money responsibly.

So it was them. And it wasn't just irritating because she generally hated his guts as a principle, it was because he sulked. And he moaned. And he hid himself beneath that ridiculous hood and she felt as though she was just talking to her own shadow. And he was _so. Fucking. Paranoid._

He glared (with his good eye) at the man who offered them a free cart ride.

He glared (with his good eye) at the boy who gave them free fruit from his stand.

He glared (with both eyes) at the poor, elderly woman who asked Katara if that was an engagement necklace. To the woman's credit, though, she only snorted and told Katara, "good luck with him in your life", before walking off.

And he glared at Katara for laughing at Zuko.

She was unfazed by it all.

They were walking back from buying rice, and Katara looked at her palm, shuffling the coins across it. She stopped walking, and Zuko bumped into her.

"What is it?" he asked irritably, rubbing his chest.

She narrowed her eyes. "I was going to offer to buy us both moon peaches with our free change, but seeing as _you're_ just being a _sour-eel_, the moon peach is mine."

She sauntered (which, retrospectively, she realised, might have looked more like childish stomping) off to the cart stand, and she exchanged the coins for the sweet.

She sat in the shade, and she ignored Zuko as he sat next to her.

Slowly, he began unloading the bags of things they had bought off his arms. The rice. The extra blankets for when they got cold. The aloe for burns. The needle and thread for when Katara needed to repair clothes. Sandalwood soap. The free fruits.

Katara put her dessert down, her stomach twisting. She had spent the extra coins on getting the larger moon peach, so she couldn't even go and get Zuko one.

She glanced at him from the corner of her eye. He was rubbing his wrists tiredly and staring ahead.

Sighing, she pushed the moon peach to the side, and it bumped into his thigh. He glanced at her questioningly.

"You can have a mouthful. Only one. Any more and I'll water-whip your ass back to the camp."

He didn't respond, so she sighed, and scooped some out with her fingers. She offered the digits to him, and he stared at them, appalled.

"What? I didn't poison my fingers," she snapped. "Fine. If you don't want it, then-"

She gasped when she felt a pair of firm, warm lips wrap around her index and middle finger. She expected him to take it in his own fingers, not _lick_ it. As quickly as it started, his lips dragged themselves down and off her fingers, and he swallowed without even glancing at her. "Thank you." She just nodded dumbly.

There was a silence, where one party was still somewhat shell-shocked and the other seemed completely unfazed. Then, he broke the silence. "... Is that an engagement necklace?"

"No," she snapped irritably, "it's an heirloom. You should know, you stole it."

"All I knew is that it was your..." he trailed off, unsure if he should continue or not.

"Yes. Which would make it an _heirloom_."

"Doesn't mean it still can't be a betrothal necklace! Maybe it was passed down for that purpose. _I_ don't know the backward ways of your culture."

"And why would you? You don't need to know the beauty of our culture to destroy it."

He turned to glare at her. She stiffened to make sure she didn't shake under the intensity of his golden eyes. "I'm here. I'm here, helping the Avatar fight my own father. I've given up my birthright. I've given up my honor. I've given up everything. When are you going to accept that I'm on your side?"

She swallowed, seething. "The last time I did that, Aang died. I'm not going to make that mistake again."

For a moment, he bent his head down, and buried his hands in his hair, clutching it tightly. When he lifted his head, she could see the beginnings of fire creeping on to his fingernails. "I'm _sorry!_ What do you _want_ me to do? Do you want me to go back in time and change what happened? Huh? Do you want me to make sure Aang never died, or your m-"

He had stopped himself just in time, but the damage was already done. She touched her necklace, and swiftly got to her feet, effectively knocking the insides of the moon peach to the ground.

"My mother," she hissed, "would not want to be here, in a world where you and your people are trying to destroy everything she loves. But thanks for the offer anyway," she added, bitterly.

As she walked back to the camp, she realised what this horrible feeling was that was plaguing her day in and day out. The Fire Nation killed her mother, and she didn't get any justice for it. Zuko betrayed her, and she didn't get any justice from him, whether or not he gave up his honor. It seemed, whatever she did, that she would always be the one at a loss, hurt, and watching those whom she relied on and trusted walk away.

* * *

They were on a flying bison a few days later. She never thought he would do this. She didn't think anyone from the Fire Nation was able to comprehend the ideas of compassion and understanding, much less the prince of them all.

But still, there he was, staring determinedly at Appa's saddle, hair whipping in the wind. He glanced up at her to offer her the beginnings of a smile, but she just snapped her head back around.

This sensation was odd. Not odd in general, she felt this sensation in buckets for everyone. Just never for him, not after the day in the catacombs. She dimly recognised it as forgiveness.

She didn't know how to feel about that. On one hand, she was a determined girl. If she believed that someone was innocent, she would do anything in her power to prove it. If she believed that justice was what she needed instead of forgiveness and so-called "letting go," as Aang had so eloquently put it, then she would focus on justice. And she had thought that if she hated someone as much as she hated Zuko, nothing would change her opinion.

A familiar stream of thoughts started to invade her mind. For the first time, she let herself think about those thoughts freely. What if she didn't hate Zuko? What if she was just smarting form his betrayal, and all she needed was a real show of apology? What if this was his apology?

Whoa. The emotions were getting a bit too much for her. A day ago, she was still angry at his callous comments from their little shopping session, and now, she was considering forgiving him?

Suddenly, she felt a warm body behind hers. "Katara," he shouted over the howling wind, "let me drive."

"No."

He growled. "Katara, you need to preserve your strength for when we find your mother's killer."

"I have more than enough."

"You do not, and you know it. Do you want to fall asleep halfway through confronting him?"

"I won't."

She then heard nothing from him, and she thought he had given up. Good.

Then, she was being lifted up by the waist, and thrown unceremoniously onto the saddle. "Zuko!" she shrieked in outrage.

"You were too weak to stop me," he pointed out.

She considered hitting the back of his head with her flat palm, but something stopped her. He was wearing one of those expressions he got around her sometimes, and she thought she could finally place it.

As crazy as it sounded to her, Katara thought it was about time to admit that maybe Zuko cared for her.

* * *

She could see the way Zuko's good eye widened when she first plunged her awareness into the other man's blood. Then, she could see how it narrowed, and how he turned back to the suspected killer.

As they walked away from the traumatised and shaking man, she wondered how it was that Zuko didn't seem as disgusted with her as she did with herself.

* * *

They found the real killer, and she knew Zuko would be willing to kill Yon Rha for her if she asked. He had dedicated himself to her cause so fully, and she couldn't help but feel something along the lines of gratefulness.

So, she let Yon Rha go for both their sakes.

* * *

On the way back, she cried, and cried, and cried. And then she felt them both descend, and she thought they'd reached the camp, and she knew she'd have to hear the lectures from Aang again, and she cried.

Instead, she felt two strong arms wrap around her, and she cried into Zuko's shirt, even though it was Zuko, because he was the strongest thing in her life right then.

As she looked around, she realised they were nowhere near their end destination. He stopped just to comfort her.

And Katara, despite everything she had called him, and despite telling him she had hated him on several earlier occasions, felt comforted.

So she hugged him back.

* * *

Only a few hours later did she realize that she had left the Blue Spirit hanging.

... She'd apologize to him the next time she saw him.

* * *

Aang _congratulated_ her. He said it was good that she let go.

She hadn't forgiven Yon Rha. She forgave Zuko, though, and she gave him one of those hugs that made her feel warm when he returned it.

It was odd, this new riot of sensation. Earlier, when she used to look at Zuko, she used to see the boy who had tried to kill her best friend and the cause they were all fighting for. Now, when she looked at Zuko, she saw the man who wouldn't judge her bloodbending, who wouldn't judge her vendetta, and who took her verbal abuse from day one when he first joined them.

She supposed she owed him an apology for that.

She walked into his tent in the night, after coming back from her visit to the town, where she left the Blue Spirit an apology note and an explanation that she was so tired she wouldn't make it tonight at their usual meeting place, and she looked down at his sleeping form.

Her mouth dried.

He slept shirtless, on his back, and she could see each one of his muscles bulging slightly.

This was another set of new sensations she didn't know how to place. She found him _attractive._ His toned chest and legs... his strong, thick arms... his face... his angular, shaped brows, his long nose, his perfect lips, and, when it would open, the most golden set of eyes she had ever seen. But that wasn't what she loved most about his face. No, what she loved most was his _scar._ On one hand, it was symbolic in that it represented his struggles and his perseverance, but on the other hand, it was just... _sexy._ It made him look dark and mysterious.

She realised she was breathing shallowly.

She decided to come back another day so that he could sleep, but on the way out, she managed to slip on the hilt of his Dao swords and crash into a set of teapots. She wouldn't be surprised if it deafened Ozai all the way in the Fire Nation. Hmm... a plan worthy of Sokka...

"Katara?"

Oh, right. She woke Zuko up. Crap.

"Sorry, Zuko, go back to sleep," she whispered, parting his tent open.

"No, it's ok. I'm up. What's wrong?" He yawned, stretching, and Katara stared dumbly at him for a bit.

After a while, he raised his eyebrow at her expectantly.

"Oh! Uh... I, um... I wanted to say thank you. And sorry."

He blinked. "Sorry?"

"Yeah." She played with the hem of her blue robes. "For being kind of a bitch earlier."

He laughed softly, rubbing his good eye with the heel of his palm in exhaustion. "I deserved it."

She gave him a half-smile, and sat tentatively next to him.

"You did deserve a good telling off," she agreed, "but I took it too far. And I'm sorry."

She wondered at how easily he forgave her.

They sat in easy silence for a while, before Katara got tired and lay down next to him. He didn't seem to mind.

"Katara..." he seemed to hesitate. "What was it you did on the man before Yon Rha?"

She froze. "Bloodbending."

"You mean...?"

"It's exactly what it sounds like. I bent his blood," she whispered. She waited for any sign of repulsion: his creating distance from her, his giving her a lecture, his ignoring her, but she found nothing.

A hand covered her.

"You're not a monster," he whispered.

She smiled at him gratefully.

Then, they talked, about everything. She learned exactly how it was that Zuko got his scar, and she learned about his mother and how she was still alive, and she learned about how he kind of used to go out with Mai but Mai kind of scared him (which she thought was just _hilarious...)_, and he learned about how she was jealous when Aang was a better bender than her, and how her father left her and Sokka alone, and how her Gran Gran used to make the best sea prunes.

She fell asleep next to him like that.

When he woke her up the next morning, before everyone had gotten up, she loved the fact that neither of them could fully suppress their smiles.

She carried that secretive smile with her the whole day.

* * *

**Ta-da. Done. Better, missmusician14?**

**I'll be answering all reviews here at the bottom!**

**To those who aren't gonna read the comments: thanks for visiting, and I can't wait to see you all next chapter! And don't forget to review!**

* * *

**missmusician14: I am a sucker for feedback. I have complied. Do you like it? Anything I should change?**

**I do agree that it was quite abrupt, but I guess I was a bit impatient to get to the smut of it all. But here's another chapter, which hopefully makes the transition more seamless.**

**As for the "please stop thinking" bit, I thought, hey, Katara's 18, she's not as innocent as earlier, so what the hey. It means we can get freaky faster. Is it too OC, do you think?**

**And, the "their" vs "her" thing. Guess what. I'm about to pee myself with excitement (I know, I know... TMI...), but I have big plans for my next Zutara fic (which is my next fic, haha). It's going to be like a 50 chappie thing and it's going to be super freaking cool and I'M SO EXCITED but back on point, that's going to be a "their". I'm more like... testing the Zutarian waters with this fic, so I think I'm sticking to the realm of Katara's brain. But watch out for the next fic, because that'll be both POVs!**

**And I'm worried about Zuko too. Poor thing, what's gonna happen to him!?**

**I was thinking sea prunes for ice cream. What do you think?**

**And once again, thank you so much for reviewing!**

**electricbubbless: There you go, a brand new chapter! Thank you so much for reviewing!**

**lawliness: Oh the suspense... what to do, what to do... ARE they the same person? You tell me ;) In all seriousness, it'll be revealed in due time. Just wait and see! Thanks for reviewing, and see you next chapter!**

**Toby Ryan: Ah, how can I say no to that? Thanks for the encouragement and the nice review!**

**ladyjane025: Look at you, superstar, reviewing thrice. How happy that made me! In response to your last review: I'd hoped nobody would expect the switcheroo, haha. I was hoping for muchos confusionos (I know, not real Spanish!), so I'm glad that came about! All will be revealed soon, though! Thank you for reviewing. THRICE!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, so haha. We're not exactly being overwhelming with the reviews here, but that's ok :3 I love all of you anyway!**

**This chapter is for my lovely missmusician14 whose review was extremely sweet and extensive. I've answered your review in an A/N at the bottom, so that you can read the chapter first!**

**Warning: THIS IS SERIOUSLY M. I'M SRS. THIS IS MY SRS CAPS LOCK. There is explicitness in this chapter. No joke. Serious explicitness. Little children, go before I scar your minds!**

**As ever, I don't own Avatar.**

**Please be sure to review, guys, they mean a lot to me!**

* * *

He was teasing her.

At first, Katara thought it was just her imagination because all Zuko did was _angst angst angst._ He certainly did not _tease._

But then, she caught him walking around with a little smirk on his face as though he had just one-upped her, and she _knew_ he was aware of what he was doing.

So, Katara only found it fitting if she took revenge on him in kind.

It was innocent, at first. He would brush up against her when she was cooking for the gAang, reaching somewhere to the side of her to get a stray lychee-nut or to pour himself some tea. Then, he would brush up against her when they would walk together to collect wood, and when they trained, he was always close, _so close,_ and she found herself pinned underneath him more times than she could count.

He'd walk around shirtless and sweaty, or shirtless and wet after his bath in the river, or just shirtless because "it's a hindrance to spar with".

He was _teasing_ her.

She decided it was about time to one-up him.

She was innocent, _at first._ She would bend down low to give him his food, or stretch showily when he was the only one around, moaning in satisfaction as her muscles cricked, and she would walk around in her bending clothes when the others had gone off to the village to buy provisions. He knew what she was doing. And she loved it.

Dimly, she recognised that it was a real while since she'd been able to seduce a man, and that she'd been aching for it. Now, with Zuko and the Blue Spirit, she had enough to go around.

And then, things got intense.

Zuko would walk around in nothing but a towel when it was the two of them around.

Katara would loosen and thin-out her breast-bindings more and more.

Zuko would make these _delicious_ sounds when he ate her food.

Katara would hug him in just her bending clothes.

And once, when Katara almost caught him undressing, he just raised an eyebrow at her.

It was time to step up her game.

"Zuko?"

"Mm?"

She blinked up at him and smiled sweetly. "Zuko, I need your help."

He sighed and put down his twin Dao swords which he had been sharpening. "What is it?"

She bit her lip and dug her toe into the ground, trying to look demure and embarrassed. "It's just... the last time I went to bathe myself, I got lost. I was wondering... could you... could you come with me this time?"

She peeked up at him through her eyelashes. He was staring wide-eyed at her.

"What?" he croaked out.

She tried giving him those Aang-eyes, naive and unassuming. "Please, Zuko?" She walked forward and tugged on his sleeve, looking at him. "Please? I don't want to get lost. And you're the only one who's still awake, and I can't wake up Sokka or Suki, and Toph would kill me, and Aang needs all the rest he can get, and-"

He made a type of strangled noise, then looked out into the darkness of the night. He licked his lips. "Are you sure?"

She blinked up at him. "Please, Zuko." She even pouted her lip a little bit. He looked at her, contemplative, so she gazed up at him in what was hopefully a convincing manner.

He sighed, resigned. "Alright, let's go."

She beamed. "Great!"

She let him lead her to the river that they had bathed in the previous night. By this time, the moon was weak, so Zuko had to light the way with fire.

He stop some meters away from the rushing sound of the river. "There." He turned around to leave, but Katara quickly caught his elbow.

"Zuko! You can't leave. The problem last time wasn't _getting_ to the river, it was _getting back._ So you have to stay."

He narrowed his eyes and looked down at her. "You're a real spoiled princess, you know that?"

She rolled her eyes. She turned around so that he was staring at the back of her head, and undid her braid so that her hair formed a curtain around her. She then tossed some of her hair back over her shoulder, and took off her robe, standing before Zuko in her bending clothes. She stepped into the river, relishing the feeling of the smooth, cool water washing away the dirt and sweat of the day.

When she turned to look at Zuko, he was standing rigidly, his back to her.

She quickly dipped herself down into the water so that her lips skimmed the surface, and undressed.

She was feeling a certain thrill, knowing that a man was near her when she was so bare. And she let herself admit that _La, she wanted him badly._

She let herself slosh around in the water for a while, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Zuko sit down in his usual meditative stance, evening out his breathing.

Finally, she slipped out of the water, took the bar of sandalwood soap that was bought in town, and slipped back in. She bit her lip, and adjusted her hair so that it covered her breasts. Then, she drew herself up to full height, so that her breasts were out of the water.

She shivered with cold. "Zuko?"

His head turned fractionally, not enough so that he could see her, but enough so that she knew he was acknowledging her.

"I need your help."

"... Katara, I'm meditating."

She licked her bottom lip nervously. She was actually going to do this. "Zuko, will you wash me?"

His entire body stiffened. "What?"

"I can't reach my back properly. I pulled a muscle during training."

He sat very still, quiet and rigid.

"Zuko?"

No answer.

"Zuko."

Still no answer.

Growing frustrated, she bent water towards him and soaked his entire back and hair. "Zuko!"

He turned towards her, furious, before stopping, wide-eyed.

She shifted in self-consciousness, hugging her arms. She glanced at him a few times, but he just stood there, uncomprehending.

Finally, she sighed. _This was a bad idea._ "Never mind. I'll figure out a way to wash my back. Don't worry. You can go back now."

She turned away from him, red as his tunic, cursing whatever gods she could think of for not warning her, knowing that Yue was somewhere off in the moon laughing at her, and she made to dip herself further into the water, until she heard shifting of a cloth.

She turned around just in time to see his tunic fall to the floor. Without taking his eyes off her, he waded into the water until he was right in front of her. She looked into his golden, _golden_ eyes, gaping at the intensity she found there.

He finally lifted one side of his lips in a smirk. "So," he nearly purred, "you need help washing your back?"

Instead of responding, her eyes traveled down from his eyes to his bare chest, and she started breathing quicker.

"Turn around," he commanded in a deep, husky, growling voice.

The first touch of his hands nearly made her buck away from him in shock. His hands were unnaturally heated where he smoothed her hair away from her now bare shoulders and back, and she stifled an undignified whimper.

He stood still, barely brushing her back with the palm of his hand, before leaning forward.

She knew he could see her barely covered breasts from the angle he was looking down at her from, but she was too lost in the whirlwind of sensations that she couldn't bring herself to care.

His hand was at her shoulder. Slowly, it drifted downwards, onto the hollow between her forearms and her upper arm, where he spent a moment stroking, before his hands traveled down to her wrists. His fingers were absurdly warm where he gently brushed past her wrists, and she was shocked to find herself biting back a whimper. She didn't know it could feel so good. Suddenly, his fingers were curled up on her palm, before he pulled away.

She looked down at her arm, looking so barren without his, and realised he took the soap.

Suddenly, she felt the slick smoothness of the soap sliding between her shoulder blades, and she arched her back slightly in pleasure. The soap moved to her shoulders, where it spent a good deal of time making circles around the socket, before it traveled down her bare arms and back onto her waist. It went from one end to another, stopping at the hollow of her back.

With her eyes squeezed shut, she could hear them both breathing roughly. He was taking his own sweet time lathering her up, and she felt herself dying to feel his hands.

Finally, _finally_, he complied, and his hands were placed squarely in the middle of her back.

She couldn't bite back a moan that time around.

The hands traveled up, with the thumbs pressing into her pliant skin along her spine. They stopped between her shoulder blades, where the thumbs spent time massaging there. They went to the junction of her shoulders and neck, and the thumbs pressed down there, and she inhaled sharply. They traveled back down to her hipbones, brushing the edge between her butt and her back, before his hands abruptly pulled away.

Aroused beyond measure, she turned around in confusion.

He was staring at her, lost. "Katara..." He made a strangled sound, then tried again. "Katara, what are you doing?"

She looked up at him, confused. "Enjoying a back wash."

"I meant... I meant... what are _we _doing?"

"Zuko..." Her fingers reached forward and gently touched her collar bone.

"I mean," he continued, apparently not having heard her, "You _just_ stopped hating me..."

She laughed slightly. "I know. But..." she looked down at his abs, at his naval, "I actually don't think I've hated you for a while. You've changed, Zuko, just like you promised you had under the catacombs. It's taken a while for you to reach here, but you have. And like I said," she peered up at him, grinning, "I guess I haven't really helped the process."

He didn't smile back at her, just continued looking conflicted, so she continued. "And recently, I've been noticing that you're... well... you're hot." She flushed a bright red. "And I know you think I'm good looking as well, and I thought we were teasing each other all this time. Zuko... I want this. And I know you do too. So... I mean, I still need a back wash."

He looked down at her fully, pained.

She circled her arms around his hips, and pressed herself to him in a hug. "Please," she whispered. She looked up at him, and threw her hair back over her shoulder, so that her bare breasts were pressed against his chest.

He let out a strangled groan and put his hands on her hips.

She smiled seductively at him, and moved one hand from his hips into his hair. She tugged his head down, and pressed her lips against his.

He was quick to respond. His mouth opened obediently under hers, and his tongue slipped into her mouth, searching, through the ridges of her teeth, the seam between her teeth and her lips, the roof of her mouth, and her tongue. He seemed to especially enjoy her tongue, as indicated by his pleased growls against her lips. He stroked her tongue, gently, before she curled her tongue around his, when he pulled her tighter against him, one hand sneaking into her hair. He kissed her thoroughly, properly, and she finally pulled back, gasping for breath.

He kissed her again, pulling her tongue into his mouth, where he spent some time sucking on it. She responded in kind, by tracing patterns into the roof of his mouth, onto his tongue, playfully rolling around with his tongue in his mouth, until it finally pinned hers down.

When they broke apart, Zuko's mouth immediately went to her cheeks, kissing their way down to her chin, then across to her ears. His tongue darted out and traced the inner ridges of her ear, then the outer ones. It went to the hollow underneath her ear, which he first kissed, then licked, before impatiently moving down. He left a trail of light bites down to the hollow between her shoulder and her neck, and if Zuko noticed the hickey the Blue Spirit gave her, he didn't say anything. He just bit down, hard.

She cried out, her hands slipping to his shoulders and hugging hard. Her hips bucked forwards, and she found her bare vagina pressed up against his hip. This seemed to spur him on, as his bites moved from her neck onto her collar bones, then turned into gentle, feather-light kisses once again as they kissed between the valley of her breasts.

He looked up at her from that position, seemingly asking a question, to which she nodded. Then, his absurdly warm hands were on her breasts. His right hand brushed the underside of her left breast, before he drew a circle around them, covering the whole circumference of her breast. The finger spiraled inwards, then, hesitantly, he scraped the puckered nipple with a finger. She cried out, and bucked once again. He let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like her name, before he allocated one hand to each nipple, twisting and tugging to his content.

It was so sensual. With Jet, his tugs were too hard, and nothing felt like this, but with Zuko, she felt every tug or twist of her nipple directly in her groin. She let out a pleading noise, wanting more.

He lifted her breasts up gently by her nipples, before leaning forward and nipping and sucking on the space below her left breast. No doubt she'd end up with a hickey there as well. His mouth quickly and impatiently was on her right nipple, and he sucked hard, and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. This felt _incredible._ His tongue came out to flick the nub inside his mouth, and she choked out his name in a despeare plea. His teeth closed around her nipple, then, and suckled hard.

"Oh... Oh _Zuko..."_

She dragged him up to her by the hair, and kissed him hard, and he responded in kind. Their tongues battled against each other, before he picked her up by the waist and took them out of the water. He was still kissing her as he lowered her down on to the grass. He pulled away from her, sitting between her legs. His eyes were immediately drawn to her vagina, and she felt herself clench under his smouldering gaze.

He reached for her foot, which he lifted up so that her foot was near his mouth. He nipped her big toe quickly, before kissing the hollow behind her ankle, and trailing little kisses up her calf muscles, to the space behind her knee, where he gave her sharp little licks, before continuing down to the middle of her thigh. Although she was panting and writhing on the ground by this point, she became more and more still as he reached closer and closer the apex of her thighs. Finally, she tried drawing her leg away, and he was quick to let go.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just that nobody's ever... done _that..._ before."

His mouth formed a little 'o' of comprehension. He crawled up her vulnerable body, and placed gentle, sweet kisses against her upper lip.

"Katara... Katara... what you do to a man." He suddenly flipped them around so that she was straddling him, and he smirked up at her.

"You're in charge, now."

She smiled at him, relishing the change in power, the fact that he wouldn't push her into doing anything she wasn't comfortable with. She leaned down and kissed him, biting his upper lip, then his lower one, before slipping her tongue in her mouth. One hand was on the small of her back while the other one settled against her head, cradling it to him.

She followed the same path that he did, down his neck, where she took her own delicious time marking him. She traveled down to his nipples, which she twisted and sucked, and to her disappointment, it didn't affect him as profusely as it did her. Frowning, she kissed her way down to his naval, circling it, and pushing her body against him.

He let out a strangled groan and bucked lightly upwards. To her astonishment, she found her breasts pressed against his pants, and more importantly, against the impressive erection trapped inside his pants. She rocked against him lightly, watching him groan and fist his hands into the grass next to him. She kissed his naval once again, tracing the ridges of his abs, before her curious hands went to the drawstring of his pants. He quickly helped her divest himself of his pants, and she found herself faced with his erection.

She didn't do anything for a while, just staring, before she noticed that he was looking at her, propped up on his elbows.

He looked worried. She smirked up at him, before whispering, "so _this_ is what's been poking at me all this time."

Before he could even respond, she wrapped a hand around his length. He groaned and bucked, driving his penis through the tight grip of her hand. She stroked him, slowly, just as the giggling girls at the Foggy Swamp had instructed her to do. It seemed to work, through the way that he had his eyes squeezed shut and the way he was breathing through his teeth. She circled the head with her fingertips, before returning her whole fist back to his penis. A single drop of precum gathered at the top, and curiously, she licked it away.

He shouted out her name, and she rubbed her thighs together, feeling herself wetten beyond imagination. He seemed to somehow understand that she needed some attention, so he instructed her to straddle his shoulders. Hesitantly, she did. His fingers were suddenly on her, probing lightly, without entering. She continued pushing her fist up and down his length as his thumb parted her lips and searched for the nub. When he found it, she cried out and pushed her hips towards him, signalling for more. He slowly started circling it, and she felt heat spread throughout her body, weakening her legs and her arms. She still continued jerkily racing her fist up and down his cock. She heard a grunt from behind her, and then she felt a single digit being pushed into her entrance. She moaned loudly and clenched greedily around the invading finger, and she heard another noise from the man behind her which sounded vaguely like: "so fucking tight". The invading finger curled inside her, stroking the one sport that set all her nerve endings on fire, and she bucked her hips helplessly towards his hand, feeling herself tighten, and feeling the hardness within her getting jerkier and jerkier, she watched, out of narrowed, watery eyes, as white spurts came out of his leaking cock and onto the green grass in front of them, before being carried away by the crushing tide of her orgasm as well.

* * *

They lay there like that for a long while after, with his head on her chest, his lips occasionally puckering and tenderly kissing the tip of a nipple, and her hand buried in his hair, stroking languidly.

She looked down at the full head of hair, thinking about how much he needed a haircut. Shaggy hair... who would've thought it would become a trend? First him, then the Blue Spirit...

_Oh fuck._

"Zuko... Zuko, get up!"

He lifted himself up on his elbows, startled, and she hurriedly began putting her clothes on. "I'm late, Zuko!"

"For what?"

She froze. "Um. I have to go... do womanly stuff. You don't want to know about it. Totally awkward. Completely disgusting."

He made a face. "Can't you stay for a bit longer?" He stood up, gloriously naked, and walked towards her. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her, making her knees shake at the intensity.

She looked up at him, tempted, before remembering that the Blue Spirit would probably be waiting for her. She had to go and tell him that, _thank you for helping, but I don't think Zuko's actually up to something._

She kissed Zuko's cheek. "No. I've really got to go!"

As she ran towards the town, she didn't bother thinking about why Zuko didn't bother telling her that camp was the other way.

* * *

She waited for an hour. Two hours, maybe. Nobody had come. She impatiently checked all their usual meeting places, without finding him there.

_Has he stood me up?_

She waited and waited. She waited unti the guards came on their usual patrol, until the beginnings of the sun replaced the darkness in the sky, until the town started moving again, until she knew everyone back in their gAang was going to wake up soon.

When she came back to camp, nobody seemed to notice that she was gone. Instead, there was another type of chaos festering in the camp.

"What's going on?"

"Not now, Katara," Sokka shouted through his wild rampage around the different tents. "Not now!"

She noticed Suki unsheathing her fan, and she drew up water around herself, preparing for an attack. She saw Aang tearing away at their provisions behind Appa, and she saw Toph like she'd never seen Toph before. Clumps of earth were being thrown haphazardly around the camp, and sweat stuck her hair to her face and neck, and-_was that tears?_

"Toph!"

"Oh god, Sparky... Sparky, where the _fuck _are you?"

The breath suddenly left her lungs, and the water she had been bending collapsed around her.

"Zuko?"

She rushed into his tent, and she found a messy bag, and a note pinned to the bag, with some streaks of red around the tent. She nearly threw up. _Blood._

Through her tears, she picked up the note:

"A life for a life, Avatar. Turn yourself in to me, and get your firebending teacher back. Meet me at the Tsing Hua temple at dawn. Do not be late, or the body we return to you will be dead."

She quickly bolted outside the tent and into the woods, where she threw up the previous night's dinner.

_Oh fuck._ Katara knew exactly what was going on. There was only one person apart from the gAang who knew that they were staying in this vicinity. There was only one person they had met who had expressed an explicit desire to know where Aang was. And it was the one person she had trusted her life with that kidnapped Zuko.

_The Blue Spirit._

* * *

**Ah, there we go. Smexytimes. And a kidnapped Zuko. What's going on?**

**Review, please!**

* * *

**missmusician14: this part is entirely for you!  
**

**Ah, Katara, always living in denial. She still can't connect the dots that the Blue Spirit and Zuko are one and the same... poor thing...**

**Haha... dying of food poisoning... that sounded so stupid even to me... you'll notice that it's now blood poisoning. Thank you for pointing that out!**

**I would like to think it's cactus juice. I think she'd be quite like her brother on cactus juice. Just... she won't see giant mushrooms is all.**

**Well, you can see how Zuko handled it when he realised Katara found him attractive... by trying to make babies. Heh.**

**I don't plan on letting poor Katara find out for another while that they're the same person. Whether she's overjoyed or mad as hell, her emotions are going to be _big._ She has a tendency to wear her heart on her sleeve, doesn't she?**

**What a sweet thing to say! Review and I will come over to your house (I promise I'm not being a creep!) and we'll have cuddles and maybe some ice cream?**

**See you next chapter xx**


	6. Chapter 6

**Been a while, hasn't it?**

**I missed you all! As ever, answers to reviews are at the bottom. As well as answers to why I took so long to upload this.**

**But for now: I don't own A:TLA, and review :)**

**But most of all, ENJOY!**

* * *

Sokka was the Plan Man, so they turned to him first. Sometimes, he came up with silly inventions ("what if we all _strap_ ourselves to Appa while we're lying down? We won't fly off then!"), but sometimes, he came up with clear, concise ones that everyone could work with ("Find Zuko. Behead whoever did this to him. Buy more lychee nuts on the way back.")

It was odd. A couple of weeks ago, if the Fire Prince would have gone missing, they would've cracked open some cactus juice and rejoiced. Now, there was somewhat of a sloppy, dysfunctional dynamic.

"Ugh. Who the fuck made this tea?"

"Me, Toph," Sokka had said, bewildered.

"It taste like Ozai's balls."

"This is how tea is supposed to taste, Champ." (Everyone had somehow become acclimated to Zuko's leaves-in-water-juice instead of tea.)

"Don't call me that." (Only Zuko called her that.)

They took one whole day to get themselves together. Although Katara was restless, she thought this might work out for the better. She knew the town much better by night, and her bending abilities were the strongest then.

While Suki's and Sokka's sparring turned deadly as a form of attack and Toph refined her metalbending skills and Aang lit his airbending on fire to cause an explosion, Katara, took some precious alone time to beat herself up for trusting the Blue Spirit.

She had absolutely no doubt in mind that it was him. After all, she held the record streak for being naive. Haru, Jet, Zuko (when he betrayed her)... and now the Blue Spirit.

In retrospect, she should've seen it coming. Why was he so keen on helping her? Why did he leave her alone for periods of time while she waited for Zuko? Why did he want to know where Aang was?

... But why didn't the Blue Spirit just kidnap Aang?

That was the difference between the Blue Spirit and Zuko. Zuko didn't hurt any of the other gAang members to get hold of Aang. Sure, he held her hostage, but he didn't _hurt_ her. The Blue Spirit, on the other hand...

Her stomach suddenly felt inverted. _What are they going to do to him?_

A myriad of horrific images flashed through her mind, a beaten Zuko, a Zuko whose other half of his face matched the scarred one, a Zuko whose heartbeat didn't thunder underneath her ear when she hugged him...

She blinked back tears and stood up properly. The sun was setting, but it was now or never.

Nobody really protested when she told them they were leaving now, and she suspected it was because they were as restless as she was.

She took one last look at the tent, and her bloodbending ability zoned her focus in on the blood in the tent.

She swore she would find him, if it was the last thing she did.

* * *

Their best bet was the local prison.

Sokka had suggested that one of them try to get arrested so that they'd be shown the way, no questions asked.

Toph clamped a hand over Aang's mouth even before he suggested that he, himself, _the Avatar_, tried to get arrested.

And in the midst of all their squabbling over who should do what to get where, nobody noticed Suki steal a fruit.

They watched, frozen, as the guards pulled her away, and Katara knew that the fear in Suki's eyes were ghosts of her experiences in the Boiling Rock prison.

Katara knew she should've been the one to go.

* * *

They were told by a local merchant where to go for the prison. Funnily enough, nobody in this town really asked questions.

Sokka had remained quiet the whole time, and she knew he was thinking about Suki. He kept glancing back at the path she was dragged down, and Katara knew he couldn't be with his sister on this mission. One, he would be too distracted thinking about Suki, and two, she wanted to know that Suki would be okay, too.

She ushered him off, and he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead and he was off with Aang in tow.

* * *

The prison was called the Zheng Yi prison, and it was nestled in between factories, blending into the gray dullness of the scene. It was quite a commotion for them to get inside.

"Yes, but I _am_ a factory worker!" an indignant Toph shouted at a burly guard, glaring at him beneath the layer of dirt she had slathered on to her face to "disguise herself".

"Then where is your uniform?"

"I _left it inside._"

The guard exhaled loudly, his nostrils flaring up.

"Stand aside, _little girl._"

"I'll show you _little - _"

"Okay, you caught us!" Katara shouted, stepping in between the guard and the furious metalbender. "We're not factory workers. We're... um..." she fumbled, trying to look for an excuse. Finding herself grow hot with stress and embarrassment, she looked at the guard, but to her astonishment, his expression cleared up to one of embarrassed comprehension.

"Ah, I... uh... I see. Well then. It's this way. He's not in the factory, usually, he's in the prison. I trust you know how to get... there."

Despite not knowing what she was signing herself up for, Katara nodded. They rounded the factory and came to the back entrance of the prison, guarded by walls that reached up to the sky.

Katara looked up to the black sky and saw the small sliver of moon. It would be another half a month before the full moon returned.

The guard she was following nodded to two others, who earthbent smooth ground aside to reveal stairs that led downwards. She suspected that only the guards knew where to bend to get the staircase. Which meant that once they got in, Toph wouldn't be able to get them out without closing down all the entrances accidentally.

Just as she was going to descend into the steps, another guard's hand shot out and stopped her.

"What about the other girl?"

Katara glanced back at Toph. "She is my sister." In this darkness, nobody could tell the difference in skin tones. It was a feasible lie. "She goes where I go."

The guard shrugged. "Whatever suits you, I guess."

The second both she and Toph were inside, their only exit back sealed on top of them, and they were encased in blackness.

"Sweetness?"

"Yeah?"

"What happened?"

"It's dark. I can't see anything."

Toph laughed sourly. "Welcome to my world."

Still, uncharacteristically, Toph took Katara's hand and led her through the darkness, and she didn't let go.

* * *

The narrow hallway they were in didn't seem to have any forks or any opportunity to change route. Wherever they were going, the guards knew, and directly sent them there. Were they being led straight into a cell? Where were they?"

After a long stretch, Toph stopped. Katara, a split second later, followed suit. Unfortunately, in that split second, her nose ended up smashing into a wall.

"Toph, it's a dead-end!"

Toph snorted. "No, idiot, it's a _door._"

Katara felt the warmth of Toph's hand next to her and she felt something open up.

She was immediately met with ornate green and black tapestries, torches that lined walls for miles on end, and a few guards dotting a large and foreboding door.

They were immediately spotted, but none of the guards assumed a defensive posture.

"Right this way, ladies," a guard's voice called out to her, as he gestured towards the large doors. "Won't Wu Xing be pleased this time..."

As she and Toph marched past the line of guards, Katara could hear their silent snickers. She grabbed Toph's hand and squeezed it once, subtly, so as to tell Toph not to bend the idiots into oblivion.

The large pair of doors were pulled open by some unknown force, and sealed tightly behind them as they entered the room.

"What's this?" a new, foreign voice sounded from somewhere to the left of her. Wu Xing. Katara's head whipped around, and she saw a long, gangly man with a wispy moustache smirking openly at the two of them. By the quality of his clothes and the ornamented room, she knew this was the warden. "This is nothing like what Madame Shu usually sends me, but I have to admit, different is quite... _refreshing_..." There was a purr to his voice that immediately raised Katara's hackles.

Still, Katara maintained a neutral face. Smoothly, so as not to seem suspicious, she stepped between the man and Toph, shielding Toph from his vision. "We've been sent here by Madame Shu to - "

"Do _not_ talk unless you're spoken to, girl," he snapped as he reached them, and offered a backhanded slap to her shoulder.

She felt Toph bristling with unrestrained anger behind her.

Wu Xing, however, continued. "The girl behind you... I have no use for her. She is not my type. I do not like local girls, I like someone more _exotic._"

Katara was starting to realize what the man was talking about.

"Hold your tongue, little girl, and we might be able to have some fun tonight," he whispered, as a hand reached out to stroke her cheek.

In a split second, Wu Xing found himself congealed to the wall half by ice, and half by the metal in his room.

Katara was staring at the man, wide-eyed. The guard outside... he let her in because he thought she was the local _prostitute._

She felt sick.

"Is this what you do for fun?" she asked him, her voice shaking.

Wu Xing sneered up at her, using his earthbending to easily wedge its way beneath the metal and the ice and free himself.

Katara backed up, horrified. "Is this what you do? You take young girls and you... you..."

Even before he had started getting into an earthbending posture, he found himself bloodbent back against the wall. Dimly, she thought about how disconcerting it was that she relied less and less on the full moon to bloodbend.

Wu Xing stared at his arms in horror, and she felt said appendages twitch in her grasp in a futile attempt to regain control of itself.

"What... what... what have you _done_ to me, witch?"

There was something coursing through her veins, and it was filling her up with the drunk power she had when she usually bloodbent.

"What's the matter?" Katara's voice had dropped to a low and deadly tenor, and she smirked slightly at him. "Hate the feeling of being... _helpless?"_ She bent his limbs so that his arms and legs were wide out in front of him. "Hate the feeling of having absolutely no control? That whatever happens to you, you can't stop?"

"Katara!" Toph's voice shouted behind her.

Immediately, Katara dropped the man, staring at her hands. It became puffed out when she bloodbent, because the call of her blood also responded to the bloodbending and her fingers would swell up with the excess of it. It hurt her head, now, and she knew she couldn't bloodbend again tonight without fainting like she did when she healed the sick child so many days ago.

Still, no reason for Wu Xing to know that.

She thought of Hama, the monster. She thought of how she used to consider herself a monster. She thought of how Zuko still cared for her, despite that.

And the reckless fear for him was back.

"Tell me, Wu Xing, _where is Prince Zuko?"_

He sat at the apex of two walls, cowering into a corner. In his eyes, she saw comprehension flash at the name.

"I-I do not know..."

_"Liar!"_

"Okay, okay! He-he was found by a local thug - we caught him and put him in the prisoner's brig - we were to deliver him to the Fire Nation tomorrow - that's all I know, _I swear!_"

"You will take us to the prison brig. And if you try anything funny, I will _rip your limbs off._"

* * *

"Leave us!" Wu Xing snapped at a guard who tried following them down.

He led them through winding paths of cells where shouts and catcalls filled the air, and hands tried grabbing at Katara and Toph's skirts.

They came to a narrower, more dimly lit hallway, and they had to walk through single-file. At the other end of it, they were faced with a heavily bolted door and guards on either side.

"You are dismissed." Wu Xing's voice was cold and detached, portraying none of his fear. As the guards left, out the corridor, Toph bent stone and metal into the opening, effectively blocking anyone from entering or exiting without Toph's removing the makeshift wall.

"Is he in there?" Katara asked.

"Yes."

Toph metalbent a hole in the wall, and the three of them (Wu Xing with clear hesitation) climbed through.

It smelled horrible inside. It smelled like rotting corpses and old blood, and it looked like a a damp, wet, torture chamber. On the farthest wall, there was a pair of handcuffs suspended such that whoever would be in it would have no hope of letting their feet touch the ground.

It would be a slow death.

Katara looked around the room to find another pair of handcuffs with Zuko hanging from it.

There was no such pair of handcuffs.

"Wu Xing." She turned to him, and found him staring with horror at the vacant pair on the wall.

Katara's throat closed up. "Wu Xing."

Suddenly, he crumpled to his knees and wrapped his arms around his head in a defensive posture. "I-I swear! I thought he was here! He must have escaped! He must have _escaped!"_

"He's telling the truth, Katara," Toph said, staring at her.

Katara walked over to the handcuffs, and down by her feet, there was the barest scrap of clothing. It was black, and it was torn, and it was the Blue Spirit's.

"I know."

Suddenly, guards had burst through the door and through the hole Toph had created, and they found themselves surrounded by earthbenders, all bigger, stronger and bulkier than her. Wu Xing dissolved behind the wall of guards.

Even before Katara could bend the water out of her water pouch, the floor beneath her collapsed, and she and Toph went down to the hallway just below theirs.

"Run!" Toph yelled, and Katara did, hearing the whistling of the wind blow by her ears as she ran as fast as she could.

The Blue Spirit takes Zuko and puts him in this prison, only to take him back out?

"Toph! Toph... I need to tell you... The Blue Spirit..."

"Not now, Katara!"

They both stopped abruptly at the entrance as guards filed through, and Katara stared at them, her hands on her knees and her posture slouched as she gasped for air. "Toph."

"What, Sweetness? This isn't a good time."

"Toph. Run when I bend. And don't look back," she breathed into the younger girl's ear.

Toph's eyes bulged. "What?"

"You need to tell Aang. Please."

There was hesitation, before Toph gave a barely imperceptible nod.

Then, Katara moved, whipping the water through the air to create just enough space and time for Toph to run through.

Toph ran, leaving Katara alone against the guards.

_This is it, _she thought dejectedly, gearing herself up for a fight she knew she'd lose.

Then, she fell. As she landed unceremoniously on her butt, she looked up at the hole on the ceiling, the floor she was originally standing on. All the other guards fell with her, and before any of them could react, another hole next to her opened up, and seawater started filling the floor up.

Katara thanked Toph.

The water level was rising quickly. It wouldn't get to the next floor, where all the prisoners were kept, but it was destroying the food supply and other things kept on this floor.

The earthbenders lunged towards her, and Katara dived for the sea, and she swam, and swam, and swam, and she broke the water's surface. She was safe.

She swam out to the civillian part of the shore, with the sound of the prison's alarm bells filling the otherwise empty background noise.

* * *

Nobody was around when she got out.

It was late at night and all the civillians had probably rushed towards the prison in curiosity about the commotion.

It suited her well that there was nobody right then.

She didn't know what to do. The Blue Spirit still had Zuko, and she couldn't go home without Zuko.

She went to the first place she met the Blue Spirit, only to find a deserted lane with a lone single candle flickering in the twilight.

She went to the little shanty town where she healed the sick child, only to find the floors evacuated of all people. No Blue Spirit to be seen. No Zuko.

She went to the store where Zuko bought the medicine, to find an empty shop.

And just as she decided to hunt around the whole city to find him, she heard it.

The soft footfall of steps, and the labored breathing.

She whirled around, only to be face-to-face with the Blue Spirit.

Without even thinking, Katara drew the water from around her, and slammed it into his stomach. She heard his grunt, and she pulled the water away, made little shards of ice and flung it towards him.

He avoided them with incredible flexibility.

Katara threw a fire-blast of ice in his direction, and she knew the force of it would be so strong he would instantly be knocked out.

Instead, the ice met fire.

She stared at the Blue Spirit, and found his arms engulfed in fire.

_He's a firebender, now? Great._

Katara narrowed her eyes. She knew how to fight firebenders.

She aimed for the ankles with her water-whip, meaning to trip him, and he sidestepped her in a manner that showed that he had this moved tried on him before.

She aimed for his wrists, wanting to douse the fire, or dampen its effect, and he only intensified its strength before the water hit the fire with a sizzle.

"What have you done to Zuko?"

The Blue Spirit faltered in his steps, and Katara took the advantage to trip him, and he landed painfully on his back, gasping. In record time, though, he was back up, with the fire having disappeared.

"Where is he?" she shouted, her attacks becoming more precise, more deadly, as she felt her anger take over her. Her ice discs managed to catch him in the arms and the legs, and blood dripped down, and she heard a muffled sound underneath the mask. She ignored him, preparing to knock him against the wall in a gust of water, drawing a large breath and spreading her arms about her, when he ripped off the mask.

The water crashed around her uselessly, and she stared, wide-eyed and shocked into narrowed golden ones.

_Zuko._

* * *

**W****hat!? Then who kidnapped Zuko!?**

**Damn those cliffhangers.**

**The reason why I'm so late: I've written and rewritten this chapter like 13495730 times because I don't know if it's too OOC of Katara to be this violent with Wu Xing. Your thoughts?**

**To those who reviewed, answers are right below this A/N, and to those who haven't, please do :)**

**Until next time, my fellow Zutarians!**

* * *

**missmusician14: What a sweet, long review, just as always!  
**

**Well, I did think it was a good suggestion, which is why I took it :)**

**What I was hoping to achieve with Katara's leaving a note for the Blue Spirit is to show that a) she trusts the Blue Spirit fully and b) this would be the Blue Spirit's time to "attack". And of course it was a stupid move on Katara's part, the poor, naive girl. Eh, I think I'll leave it as it is because I think I want Katara to be this naive and gullible.**

**That is a very good point. Unfortunately, I have NO IDEA how to edit that part without it seeming to choppy, so I think I'll leave it for a rainy day when I'm hit with inspiration haha.  
**

**Hahaha, my readers must hate me at this point, not much has gotten resolved!**

**Ah... the gym... I've always heard about that place. Sounds like a torture chamber to me :P**

**Really, thank you SO MUCH for reviewing, and I can't wait to hear from you again!**

**ladyjane025: There will most definitely be lemons in the next story. It'll be slightly kinkier than this, though, so yeah :)**

**And how sweet of you to say all that about me! I'm so flattered. I mean it. There's no greater satisfaction for me than knowing that my readers like my work.**

**I'm looking forward to your next review, because they always manage to make me smile :)**

**MustacheCats: First off, welcome to this fic! And now, welcome to the "responses-to-reviews" section.**

**I know what you mean about the long hiatus things. I'm still waiting on some fics and they haven't been updated in three years haha. Here's my promise: I will finish this fic!**

**Just so that you know the general timeline: It was originally going to be seven chapters, but thanks to my lovely missmusician14's suggestion of adding a transitionary chapter, it's going to be eight chapters long now.**

**And if you do want to read my next fic, it'll be a longer one. I'm SO excited about that.**

**Anyway! It's so good to read your review, and I hope you'll review again!**


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